Sunday, September 20, 2015

The now-annual Victory Green and White scrimmage at Cedar Park Center had a final score of 5-2, with the White squad besting their intra-squad rivals. The overall flow of the game was relatively inconsequential, so this post will mostly focus on some of the piecemeal storylines that cropped up throughout the match.

Goalie Battles Continue
Antti Niemi did not play in today's scrimmage; he played yesterday and practiced with Group C this morning. Kari Lehtonen and Jack Campbell started for the two squads and had fair to middling performances. Campbell stopped 11 of 13 shots against him in net for White. Lehtonen stopped just 6 of 9 on the Green net.

"I thought there were some good saves," said Lindy Ruff. "But it's hard to tell on some of the goals what happened. There were some good saves out of all the netminders."

Philippe Desrosiers spelled Lehtonen in the Green net and looked very good against NHL competition. He stopped Tyler Seguin easily on a penalty shot in the second period.

"Desrosiers made four or five big saves right off the bat," noted Ruff.

He's looked ready for the AHL game so far in his time in camp, but it is early. Even if Desrosiers proves to be ready for AHL competition, he will need volume of games to get into the pro game. He'll find that in Idaho. Regardless, his strong performance has to make Scott White and Derek Laxdal think about how their net will look as the year progresses.

Quietly, by the way, Maxime Lagace had a shutout during his time in net (8 saves on 8 shots).

Another 3-on-3 OT Test
The final five minutes of the first and third periods were reserved for 3-on-3 overtime practice. Dallas continued to experiment with defensive coverage, which is what Coach Ruff is more concerned with overall in the extra frame.

"We spent time on it this morning in the walk thru, and we're going work it in every day in camp."

The current trade off is between zone defense or man-to-man. Asked which he prefers, Ruff is definitely a big fan of zone.

"I like the zone so much better. There aren't grade A chances once you're in the zone."

Idaho-signed Brandon Magee Impresses
Free agent camp invitee Brandon Magee was impressive in today's scrimmage against NHL competition. The 21-year old forward has played four years in the WHL with Victoria and is now on the hunt for a professional gig. He was in development camp with Montreal over the summer and joined the Dallas Stars in the Traverse City prospects tournament. It's not his first NHL training camp; he was with Calgary in camp last season.

"It's been whirlwind, flying everywhere. Just trying to take it all in and get better, pick up the little things these guys are saying."

Magee, who is signed with the Steelheads for this season, is hoping for an AHL contract. He's making waves this season already after a great showing in Traverse City and a goal in today's scrimmage for Team White. He's even had a leg up on the rest of the free agents, having played his WHL career in Jamie Benn's hometown.

"I played the last few years in Victoria, BC, so I got to know Jamie Benn in summer skates. Getting to know him, it made me feel comfortable a lot quicker."

We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.